We’re back!!!! It’s New Year’s Eve 2016 and I have been planning this post for absolutely AGES. Five months, in fact. And I’ve spent three months trying to actually get a chance to write it!

The thing is that a lot has changed since I started writing this blog – which I did from my hospital bed all those months ago. I have finished my maternity leave and sick leave and gone back to work. I have procured a new job which I start next week and its a big deal for me, with a lot more responsibility. Money has been tighter (and thankfully I made my purchases for the childrens’ wardrobes a few months beforehand) and I’ve been having to work hard to meet deadlines for the old contract I was leaving, looking after the children and preparing for Christmas too!

But I have desperately wanted to share so much with you, with no time to do it!

So here I am. New year about to start, with new challenges, and old passions that I am determined to continue as my new way of life settles into a new routine. I am starting as I mean to go on, and here is the post that I have waited patiently yearning to write.

I had a plan for the autumn/winter wardrobe for Rory, and Kaitlin. But in particular for Rory – after all Kaitlin would wear her twirly dresses until they no longer fit and so I just needed to top up on cardigans, tights and a few long sleeved twirlers to complete the package. In fact her wardrobe is totally overstocked with things that she just won’t wear and I’ve decided to get on and sell, but that’s another post!

Rory’s clothes

I worked out that Rory already had 4 outfits that other people had bought him in 18-24m, and decided that he only needed 10 outfits all together. This allowed for accidents and changes of clothes, as well as being slightly behind on the washing, and seemed like a “sensible number”. I also thought we needed an extra smart set for special occasions. My husband Simon finds dressing our children quite stressful, since he is “not sure what goes together” so I said that I would buy and store them in sets so that he would never have to worry – and he was happy with this.

I made a list of the brands of outfit I wanted to buy for him, and with absolute joy I made my orders and watched them land on my doormat with glee! I love that bit! This is what I chose:

5. Albababy

Ever since I discovered Alba I wanted to buy some new. I had bought a couple of odds and ends in the summer and liked them, and this encouraged me on to invest in an outfit of my choosing for the winter. I decided to buy him some sale price bell bottom jeans and an Albababy gilet, with a contrasting and complementing Polarn O Pyret striped yellow vest. Sometimes I interchange the vest with a lovely DUNS woodland top he has, and this set of clothes in general makes me very happy to see beneath his cheeky face; it matches his character of cheeky chappie just perfectly! Outfit five, tick.

 

6. Moi Kids, American Apparel

Moi leggings next. I had wanted some for ages. I got a pair of grey leggings with multi-coloured birds on them and thought they were really cool. I had a white American Apparel “Let’s Dance” slogan t shirt to go with them and the outfit looked supercool with the black vests underneath that I had got from H&M.

7. Moromini, Maxomorra

I had some Moromini fried egg dungarees. They’d been stashed for ages with a Maxomorra striped yellow vest to go underneath them. But when I got them out I realised I was tiring of them… Still, others would surely like seeing him in them, and I had bought them brand new. So that was outfit seven.

8. Viciouswear/Indikidual

Viciouswear is so cool. (Its super baggy on top and very long in the leg though so he still hasn’t grown into it yet!)

So I replaced it with some more WAHM handmade preloved trousers with astronauts on, and an indikidual Jelly Beans jumper… Love the beans! Here it is with the Moi leggings.

9. High Street

I bought him a rugby shirt from Jojo Maman Bebe and some navy lined cargo pants from Next – a little boy outfit with my husband in mind (he loved it).

10. Polarn O Pyret

For he last outfit I decided I wanted some more scandi and always find that Polarn O Pyret lasts beautifully and tends not to fade. I got two tops, and a pair of orange, lined cargo pants, which I love (but are absolutely huge and have moved into the 2-3 stash!). Ten outfits, sorted!

Oh, and then I felt gutted I forgot about Blade and Rose… so he got some new knitted leggings… that sort of made eleven outfits.

And then I saw an amazing pair of white jersey handmade dungarees being sold preloved (below)… and I just had to have them! So… twelve.  (I forgave myself for that.)

Then there was the Filemon Kid tapir outfit I always promised myself I’d buy him and came up almost sold out in the sale… And I found a Lile Sadi top preloved which I adore… And the brother/sister t shirts from Button & Squirt that were meant for next summer but I love them so much that I keep putting them on over vests already!!! So if I’m honest, I was 40% over my target at about 14 outfits (probably with spare t shirts!). And I bought him some Christmas kit, of course… Molo penguins as well as high street Christmas jumpers!

 

Outerwear

I invested in a pair of Lottie & Lysh handmade reversible fleece coats for both Rory and Kitty. These have gone down an absolute storm!!!! I also made sure they each had a lined raincoat. Despite the fact that I invested time and energy in tracking down a bright pink unicorn coat from Hatley for Kaitlin, she doesn’t love it nearly as much as her Lottie & Lysh coat. She always goes straight for it – as does Rory for his “Polar Bear!”

Smarts

I got a Lindex farm button up shirt to go with a pair of yellow jeans that he had been bought by his Nan, which has done beautifully for weddings and special occasions.

All done, I surveyed his new clothes. I laid them out in sets. I liked them all, and I loved most of them. But I had a sudden pang of sadness. And that sadness grew.

Too Grown Up.

My little boy was moving into 18-24m and his clothes were all of the type that could equally be worn by a five year old or older. I don’t really *agree* as it were, with dressing children as mini adults. And although I certainly wasn’t doing that, his clothes did not reflect the bright fun colours little people enjoy, and didn’t have any of the animals on he liked, and generally I just felt sad that he didn’t have cows (his favourite at the time) or ducks (a close second) or trains (the best thing in the world!) to wear. I was also missing the babyish stuff that he could now only just get away with and soon would no longer be able to – baby knitted trousers and dungarees, cosy cardigans and fluffiness.

I owned up to my husband… and he felt the similar and agreed that I should sell some, and shop some more. Straight away I sold the fried eggs that I had fallen out of love with – somebody else loved them straight away.

I hit the new season Frugi and got some rainbow parsnip trousers, cow top, duck top and reversible fleece. He also got some tights with a ram on the bum! I went on the scandi preloved sites and got him a Maxomorra train vest. I bought him a preloved long sleeved farm top from Me Too and then bought some a Snoozy farm top too. He got a preloved Joules crocodile T shirt for about £5 and a couple of preloved DUNS Sweden vests with safari animals and elephants on. I paired these with the velour Maxomorra petrol dungarees that I found in my stash (and sold the beautiful mint green pair I had been saving… He looked better in the others). I also got him some knitted fox dungarees from Next, and a knitted jacket and trouser set from H&M which I love him in – so soft and squishy for cuddles! He is already growing out of the red  Zara BabyGirl (!) dungarees pictured below, but they were lovely. Oh, and I think his Maxomorra yellow velour trousers and his Happy rollneck jumper by Little Bird is one of my very favourites, especially with the matching hat! He looks so cosy!

So despite my best intentions, he now has far too many clothes after all!!!

But I’m trying to constantly sift out what he doesn’t wear. He has ruined a few pairs of leggings pretty quickly. And some days I enjoy seeing him in something a bit different from all the rainbows. I’m starting to get to the point that I now do love his whole wardrobe and everything makes me smile. Even if, as usual, there is too much in it!!!

I’ve learned a lesson though. The clothes I think a cool are not the same as the clothes I like on my little boy. If others want to constantly dress their little people up as models for monochrome or muted and perfectly coordinated then that’s perfectly fine. But that’s not my little boy. He is full of colour and life and bright rough and tumble fun. He is still small (he’s still only one!) and now his wardrobe makes me smile.

I’ve started buying in the Christmas sales for 2-3… And so far its all brights!